Hi all,
I finally got my first ereader yesterday for my birthday, thanks for all the help I got a pink Pocket, with a cover with a light. Very much loving it!

A few questions I've come up with (edited with some solutions):

I'm happy managing my library via calibre (used this to manage books on my iphone), so plan on continuing to use this. Is there any disadvantage to not installing the Sony software? I haven't yet dealt with DRM'd books, but from what I can see I will be able to use Adobe software to deal with them (if it makes any difference, I'm using a mac).As per Bookworm_Girl's post: on the mac, to be able to read Sony store books and other DRM'd books, I'll need to use the Sony software

I've created a tag with the name 'UNREAD' in calibre to manage my unread books. Once I've read the book on my reader, is there a way to delete the book from the UNREAD collection, or do I need to do this via calibre?Books can be deleted and added to collections from within the device, but these won't sync to the computer. Best way is probably to deal with the collection from within Calibre. I'll probably create a new tag named 'DELETE FROM UNREAD' and after reading a book, I'll move it there from within the device. Before plugging the ereader in the computer to add new books etc, I'll access that collection and delete those books from the UNREAD collection in Calibre.

One thing that I loved about reading books on my iphone was that I could read a summary of the book before I launched into reading it. Is there a feature like this on the Sony ereader? I have each of my books setup in calibre to have a summary and an image (the summary is in the contents section).As per Bookworm_Girl's post: In calibre, paste summary text into the Metadata field called "Comments". Then when you do a file conversion, in the Structure Detection input check the box for "Insert metadata as page at start of book".

How do you manage series? I have books collected together in calibre with the series feature, and that pops it into a 'collection' on the reader. At the moment each of the books in the series are named (for example): LOTR01 The Fellowship of The Ring etc - I add an abbreviation and a number to signify the number in the series. Is this the best way to group it so that I know what number book it is?As per this thread, a plugboard can be setup to deal with series, it will even add a section to the end of the title, something along the lines of LoTR1, and sort by book number.

Formats - given the option, what is the best format to work with? Epub or something else?

Any other tips on working with Calibre and a Sony ereader?

Oh - one other question - when I plug my ereader into the computer, it launches two 'devices' - 'READER' and 'SETTING'. When I'm finished adding books via calibre and eject the ereader, it only ejects 'READER'. Am I fine to unplug at this stage, or should I also eject 'SETTING'?As per SeaBookGuy's post, no need to worry about Setting.

Last edited by bobsi18; 12-19-2010 at 01:51 AM.
Reason: Adding the answers

Regarding your UNREAD books, you can easily delete a book after reading it from that collection directly.

Thanks... how do I do this? From within the book (on the ereader), I've tried accessing the options, but I can't figure out how to delete the book from the collection (but not from the ereader entirely).

EDIT: Ahh, figured it out - go into the collection, and then hit the options button, and go from there. Now I just have to figure out how to sync this with my computer when I connect up.

First go to COLLECTIONS, and select the one you want to delete the book from (in your case "Unread"). Then hit the OPTIONS button, and one of the choices will be Remove Content. Tap that and all of the books in the collection appear with little boxes by them; tap the one(s) you want to delete (a check mark will appear in the box), then hit DONE in the upper right corner. The last step is essential - kind of like hitting SAVE to save your work.

With Windows, you need (or are supposed to have) both Adobe and Sony software installed, though you need not actually use the Sony one, for DRM'ed books. I thought I'd read that Adobe doesn't work with Macs, so you'd need to use the Sony software instead?

No, I haven't had the opportunity - my local library doesn't do ebooks. Will look into it more now that I have a dedicated ereader, try and find a library here (I'm in SE Melbourne, Australia) that has overdrive. I guess I'll deal with DRM and Adobe and the Sony software when I buy/borrow my first book

Thanks for the help on the collections, I've managed that, but it doesn't sync back up to my computer, is it possible to sync, or do I need to manually change the collection content in calibre too?

With Windows, you need (or are supposed to have) both Adobe and Sony software installed, though you need not actually use the Sony one, for DRM'ed books. I thought I'd read that Adobe doesn't work with Macs, so you'd need to use the Sony software instead?

Were you reading public library books on your iPhone?

I hate to contradict you, but this isn't the case. I have the Sony Library installed, but not ADE, and Adobe DRM'd books work fine (including library books).

I'd say you need to do it manually in Calibre. I don't sync stuff as such myself, just highlight the books I want to send to my Sony, and then it's "transfer to device". As for a summary, I believe there is a way to add it to the book (as the 'first page'), but have never tried it.

I understand Kobobooks is a great source for Ozzies, and they're DRM'ed.

Doreen:

I thought the Overdrive instructions say you need both - it always seemed silly to me!

I use a Mac too. You can install Adobe Digital Editions on your Mac. It will read DRM'ed ebooks ok on your computer screen. The problem is it doesn't recognize the Sony ereaders as a device connected by USB. It's invisible. ADE for Mac recognizes other ereaders (like the Nook) but not Sony unfortunately. Therefore you can't use ADE to transfer books to your Sony. That's ok. I use the Sony Reader Library software to import DRM'ed books and transfer them to my ereader. You can use the Sony software to manage all of your ebooks if you want. It can handle both DRM'ed and non-DRM'ed and not just ones that you purchased from Sony.

I like summaries at the beginning of my books too. Here's how I add summaries for my non-DRM'ed books. In calibre, I paste summary text into the Metadata field called "Comments". Then when you do a file conversion, in the Structure Detection input check the box for "Insert metadata as page at start of book".

I was hoping to use the Collections feature to clean up the home page book list -- that is, put all the books by one author in a folder (collection) like you can on a computer, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I created a new Collection, added all the books by that author into it, but they are still on the home page as well.
Is there any way to do this? Otherwise, if you get very many books on the reader it will just be a very messy home page that's hard to locate anything on very quickly.

HarmonS, I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you talking about your 505 or one of the newer models? What do you mean by home page? Do you mean the list of all your books?

My home page has the currently reading book plus 3 icons for the most recently loaded. I also create collections for a particular author and then order them as appropriate (that's how I manage books in a series rather than use calibre).

I use a Mac too...You can use the Sony software to manage all of your ebooks if you want. It can handle both DRM'ed and non-DRM'ed and not just ones that you purchased from Sony.

Thankyou Ok, thanks for the info, I'll install the software and see how I go (there were a few I books I wanted to checkout on Kobo).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

Here's how I add summaries for my non-DRM'ed books. In calibre, I paste summary text into the Metadata field called "Comments". Then when you do a file conversion, in the Structure Detection input check the box for "Insert metadata as page at start of book".

HarmonS, I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you talking about your 505 or one of the newer models? What do you mean by home page? Do you mean the list of all your books?

My home page has the currently reading book plus 3 icons for the most recently loaded. I also create collections for a particular author and then order them as appropriate (that's how I manage books in a series rather than use calibre).

I'm talking about my 950. The home page is what you get when you hit the home key, and it has the last book you were reading at the top, and then all all the other books on the reader after that. Well, yes it only has three right there, plus the icons for periodicals, collections, and all notes. But it also has a "see all" arrow which has pages of all the books, inluding the ones that you put in a collection.
So I'm looking for a way to get all those books nicely tucked away in folders (collections) grouped by author.

I was hoping to use the Collections feature to clean up the home page book list -- that is, put all the books by one author in a folder (collection) like you can on a computer, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I created a new Collection, added all the books by that author into it, but they are still on the home page as well.
Is there any way to do this? Otherwise, if you get very many books on the reader it will just be a very messy home page that's hard to locate anything on very quickly.

I understand your frustration, Harmon, though I think you may be misunderstanding that the collections feature can actually accomplish your goal. Basically, the "default" (root) status is to show everything on the reader (by date added, with opened "new" books first) -- screen after screen of it.

Once your reader is turned on, however, you can go to the Collections feature from the opening screen with the Last Read book and latest three loaded, choosing the one named by an author as a "sub-file" from there, bypassing everything else. I hope that helps - I think it's pretty much what you had in mind.